


Listening To Silence

by FreezingRayne



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Genre: Apocalypse, Demons, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-22
Updated: 2009-11-22
Packaged: 2017-10-03 14:30:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreezingRayne/pseuds/FreezingRayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It comes on slowly--like a gradual, building pain--the knowledge that there are things outside, just past the Cylinder's eerie glow, creatures beyond anything he's ever imagined."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Listening To Silence

Hijiri can feel them moving in the dark.

It comes on slowly--like a gradual, building pain--the knowledge that there are things outside, just past the Cylinder's eerie glow, creatures beyond anything he's ever imagined or written about for the magazine.

They move, pace, snuffle at the door sometimes, but they never come inside. Maybe they can't--the power of Amala keeps them out--or maybe they don't think Hijiri's worth it. Just one measley human, when there's a whole new world to devour.

Or, perhaps, he's just been lucky.

He spends a great deal of energy, at first, wondering what he's going to eat, how he's going to find water in this crumbling bloodstain of a city. He's nearly at the point of despair when he realizes he isn't hungry. He had been, before the Conception, been planning on getting curry from the market after investigating the hospital. Not anymore.

At least there's something for him to do--the script on the Cylinder is fascinating, the inner workings of the Amala Network something to be marveled at. A whole new world has sprung up in a moment, and from what he can tell, very few have survived it. Someone has to record, someone has to discover. Isn't this what he's been waiting for, the chance to research something completely new and unseen?

Be careful what you wish for.

Sometimes, the loneliness takes over. Near constant isolation does strange things to the psyche--he talks to himself, to his shadow, to the light dancing off the walls when the Cylinder spins. He hums, even sings a little when he can no longer bear the quiet and the sounds of the demons outside the door. Looks forward to the rare moments of companionship whenever the door opens to reveal the strangely glowing form of the demon boy, who'd begun life as a human.

He doesn't say much, and what he does say is softly spoken, mostly noises of assent when Hijiri asks him to perform some necessary task or investigate another dangerous place. Naoki has a pack of demons that follow him willingly, overcome by his strength, perhaps, or by that odd, radiating presence that creeps across Hijiri's skin like electricity. His body is nearly a demon's, but there is still humanity in his eyes. Perhaps there is hope for him.

Hijiri still sleeps, though not as often as he thinks he used to, and sometimes he dreams. Mostly of Naoki. Of the boy visiting him, speaking to him, breaking the silence. Often the dreams turn into nightmares; Naoki jumping at his throat, riding him to the ground, blood spilling coppery and hot between them. Other times they border on the obscene. The boy ripping off his increasingly rumpled clothes, touching him with long, delicately clawed fingers, brushing a warm mouth over his skin. Hijiri tries to imagine what the lines of power the curl and snake across his body would feel like when he touched them, if they would feel just like skin, or like fire, or something else. He wonders if he glows everywhere, if his cock is painted with the same light.

Sometimes the dreams repulse him. Other times he's filled with a longing so intense it makes him sick.

He wonders if this is what going crazy feels like. Thinks, perhaps, that he'd reached it a long time ago. When he's awake he is filled with a constant, singular purpose--preventing Hikawa from reaching his goals. He doesn't exactly know what a World Of Stillness entails, but it doesn't sound like a good thing. At least Naoki seems intent on foiling his plans as well.

That's fine. They'll work together. And Hijiri will be here until Hikawa creates his new world, or something nasty finally comes through the door.


End file.
